Broccoli Potato Lentil Soup

I am one of those people who loves the change in season to fall, not only for the freshness and the beautiful autumn leaves but because its officially soup season!

This soup is one of the quickest and easiest soups, I make it pretty much every week. My toddler loves it, like week after week when other food options that I thought he was really loving, he’s no longer interested in, this soup remains a favourite.

I came up with this soup when I was on an intense elimination diet while nursing my son who was reacting to foods I was eating.. while at the same time he was starting solids. So trying to find nutritious foods we could both eat took a fair amount of planning and effort. It was a wild time. it started off as just broccoli and lentils and I slowly was able to add more ingredients as we trialed and passed more and more foods and this is the delicious result.

Its incredibly nutritious, packed with iron and protein from lentils, minerals and vitamins from green vegetables, all the starchy goodness of potatoes, healthy fats from coconut milk and olive oil and anti inflammatory spices. It’s really one of those nourish the body and soul foods. This recipe is vegan but you could absolutely substitute coconut milk for dairy milk or add crumbled bacon or whatever you like. I love to enjoy it with sourdough bread on the side. A swirl of olive oil, shredded cheddar or grated Parmesan is also delicious.

I make a fairly large batch of this soup so that we can eat it for more than one meal so you can definitely reduce the batch size. I also don’t really measure anything for this recipe, its quite forgiving as long as you don’t add too much liquid.

INGREDIENTS

1 onion diced

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper (or more if you like)

1 tbs turmeric

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp (or more if you like) ginger

3 large potatoes

1 cup red lentils

3 cups broccoli

approx. 4 cups of water or broth (should be just level with the top of ingredients in the pot)

1 can coconut milk (I use full fat)

Heat a large pot on medium-low and add 2-3 tbs of olive oil or coconut oil to the bottom of the pot. Once heated add the chopped onion and garlic.

Then add salt, pepper, Turmeric, ginger and cumin and a bit of water.

Close the lid and cook for a couple minutes.

Add chopped potatoes and let cook a couple more minutes. These steps are really all about aromatics and flavour.

Rinse the lentils (I use a fine mesh strainer).

Add broccoli lentils and water or broth so the liquid is just below level with the veg. You don’t want there to be too much liquid if you’ll be adding coconut milk.

Cook for 15 minutes until potatoes are soft.

Remove from heat. I use a hand blender to puree the soup. Add coconut milk (I use full fat Thai Kitchen coconut milk most of the time).

Serve and enjoy!